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Isn't just inspired by Flashman. After one of Caine's adventures, a group of Tallarn start viewing him as a manifestation of the Emperor. That's likely inspired by a real-life cult in India that revered "Nikal Seyin", otherwise known as a British officer (born in Ireland) with the surname of Nicholson. Nicholson himself hated the cult (likely because he was a God-fearing Christian, and saw it as disrespectful and blasphemous), and reportedly had members of it flogged on more than one occasion.

My point isn't necessarily that Caine is based on Nicholson, either. He isn't. The two are very different men. But Caine is an amalgamation of bits and pieces of cultural relics drawn from British history. Flashman had a strong influence on Caine. But it almost certainly wasn't the only influence. And as a result, Caine shouldn't be viewed as "Flashman in the 41st Millenia".



According to Wikipedia, the last member of the cult that revered Nikal Seyin died in 2004.

I seriously thought Cain was a mashup of Blackadder and MASH. He's a cynic and a bastard, but he's a main character with charisma and wit.

Dai wrote:
You should read ol Flash Harry, it is fantastic and I think you'd get a real kick out of it!

I tired reading Flashman, but found the character unlikeable. I stopped not long after he attempted to rape an acquaintance. Cain has a lot of redeeming qualities and feels like a hero with Imposter Syndrome. Flashman is a detestable bastard I only want to see dead, and not waste any more time with.

So I just happened to listen to "A Mug of Recaff" on the way to work today, and it was interesting. Jurgen IS aware of his Blank status. He doesn't understand it. But Vail did in fact attempt to tell him, he's just literally too ignorant to understand the concept. He actually believes he has a special gift from the Emperor that allows him to kill Demons, REALLY well.

I think there’s a strong argument that Jurgen doesn’t need to know much more than that.

He’s a trained and capable soldier, so would know Loose Lips Cost Lives. And his gift simply means he’s even more effective as a bodyguard.

Right, I was just remarking that I was shocked he didn't know. Think about it. How do you grow up, not knowing. Several decades of life is an awful long time for a "soldier" to not get called, shot, flogged, punished, found out, for being a complete slovenly mess of a human, with a naturally repellant aura. Who was the Commissar before Cain? How did he miss Jurgen? I mean, in 20+ years no one has ever corrected him? I assume he's around 20s when he meets Cain and becomes his Aide.

Well, Jurgen was assigned to Cain as a deliberate slight. Let this new upstart Commissar, still wet behind the ears, have a smelly ruffian as his aide. That’ll learn him.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, Jurgen had a medical card excusing him from usual hygiene standards.

Much like Cpl Nobby Nobbs carries a card proving, beyond the evidence of one own eyes, he is in fact a human.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Well, Jurgen was assigned to Cain as a deliberate slight. Let this new upstart Commissar, still wet behind the ears, have a smelly ruffian as his aide. That’ll learn him.

Correct. Cain didn't like Jurgen when they first met. The permanent assignment was done by his commanding officer who, Cain suspected, realized that Cain had assigned himself to a cushy low-risk post, and had been trying to flee the battlefield when he'd inadvertently discovered the Tyrannids and saved the unit. The regimental commander couldn't haul Cain up on charges because he didn't have actual proof, and Cain *had* just saved the unit (making him a hero in the eyes of everyone else). So the only thing he could do was annoy Cain by assigning Cain an unlikable individual as an aide and driver.

Then Cain discovered Jurgen's (non-blank) abilities, and came to appreciate the man's unquestioningly loyalty, and ability to make Cain's life much easier.

How do you grow up, not knowing.

The existence of blanks doesn't appear to be known to most of the Imperium. This is hardly surprising, given that psychic powers in general are poorly understood. It's not necessarily that the Imperium is attempting to hide the fact that blanks exist. Rather, it's that the majority of Imperial citizens probably prefer to know as little as possible about the scary psychic stuff as possible. Given that, it's hardly surprising that Jurgen wouldn't know what he was. Even Cain didn't realize it until Vail told him, and he'd been fighting alongside the man (and frequently noticing how things like daemons and genestealer hybrids seemed to seize up at critical moments) for a long time.

As for any previous commissars for Jurgen... Cain's initial conversation with the commanding officer of the artillery regiment that served as Cain's first posting seems to suggest that artillery regiments don't typically get commissars. They can. But there are only so many commissars to go around. And presumably it's seen as more important to attach them to the units that see regular front-line combat, and thus need more attention to ensure that they're properly loyal to the Emperor.

FezzikDaBullgryn wrote:
Right, I was just remarking that I was shocked he didn't know. Think about it. How do you grow up, not knowing. Several decades of life is an awful long time for a "soldier" to not get called, shot, flogged, punished, found out, for being a complete slovenly mess of a human, with a naturally repellant aura. Who was the Commissar before Cain? How did he miss Jurgen? I mean, in 20+ years no one has ever corrected him? I assume he's around 20s when he meets Cain and becomes his Aide.

As said above, Blanks are not a well understood phenomenon. Even assuming someone knows they exist.

Blanks are vanishingly rare. Like, one in tens of trillions rare. The total number of blanks in the galaxy may not even crack a million. So they are something that even well educated people may not know exists, and those who do are unlikely to know much.

And the only thing that non-psykers can tell a blank is there is the odd aura they exude. An aura which, while definitely strange, is not so strange as to draw attention. Even if someone knows what blanks are, if they aren't a psyker they're not likely to detect the difference between the aura of a blank and someone who just pisses everybody around them off.

Really, the only way to confirm a blank's presence is for a psyker to verify it. Psykers are themselves also quite rare, so you have the double whammy of needing a rare tool to find an even rarer tool which otherwise just appears to be a trashy person.

So the average person is going to see a blank as nothing more than a person you find repugnant and disgusting. A person who is on the receiving end of bullying from society. There are going to be millions of people like that who aren't blanks, they're just unlucky or people who piss everybody around them off with their 'charming' personality. So picking the Blank out of the crowd is basically impossible unless you have a psyker or daemon around to make it obvious.

 Grey Templar wrote:

Really, the only way to confirm a blank's presence is for a psyker to verify it. Psykers are themselves also quite rare, so you have the double whammy of needing a rare tool to find an even rarer tool which otherwise just appears to be a trashy person.

Even then they can slip past the psyker. For example, it's likely that if Eisenhorn's attention hadn't been directly called to Alizabeth during their first meeting, he wouldn't have realized what she was. If he'd passed her standing on a street corner, he might not have made the connection.

On the other hand, Raquel *definitely* knew there was something "wrong" about Jurgen, and made it clear that she didn't like being in the same room as him.

Yup, you need actually have the psyker try and use their powers on/near the blank. If they're just in a crowd of people they'll get a weird feeling, but be unable to pinpoint who is causing the disturbance if they can even tell at all.

Honestly a Blank could probably walk up to a psyker in a crowd completely undetected other than "ive got a bad feeling about this" from the psyker. So unless the psyker is directly interacting with the blank, at which point they can definitely tell that something is way off because a normal person doesn't do what they do, they could go undetected.

So I suppose theoretically blanks could be way more common than is stated or implied in the canon, but their abilities make them go unfound so they are perceived as being ultra rare. Of course at that point the difference is purely academic.

I think touching a blank is a pretty surefire way for a psyker to identify a blank, but again that is going to be very rare as an occasional occurrence. Especially as a psyker is likely to subconsciously avoid blanks unless forced into close proximity.

Eumerin wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:

Really, the only way to confirm a blank's presence is for a psyker to verify it. Psykers are themselves also quite rare, so you have the double whammy of needing a rare tool to find an even rarer tool which otherwise just appears to be a trashy person.

Even then they can slip past the psyker. For example, it's likely that if Eisenhorn's attention hadn't been directly called to Alizabeth during their first meeting, he wouldn't have realized what she was. If he'd passed her standing on a street corner, he might not have made the connection.

On the other hand, Raquel *definitely* knew there was something "wrong" about Jurgen, and made it clear that she didn't like being in the same room as him.

The text about Raqel is suggestive she’s always “on”, as if she doesn’t have full, conscious control over her powers. This is kind of supported by her wafty nature and odd wittering. But then, every time we’ve met her in the books, Vail has been about her business. Which raises the possibility she’s under standing orders to be “on” at all times until Vail has completed her mission, and in whatever passes for downtime she can perhaps have a rest.

And so her reaction to Jurgen is because, however passively, she was using her gifts at the time, and always has been when they’re in close proximity.

As for trying to give my head canon for Blanks and Psykers? If like me you suffer from migraines, it’s like when the vision thing happens. Not so much a black or even blank spot. Just a part of your field of vision where you see nothing. As you move your eyes the patch of missing moves with them. If you don’t suffer from migraines, trust me it’s most offputting and unpleasant.

The SoS book confirms the Sister, if sufficiently trained, can literally mask herself behind a "wall of revulsion" basically plot armor. That forces people to not notice the thing in the shadows out of sheer terror I guess. Point being, she can dial it up to 11, and use it as a physical attack. She doesn't need to "touch" a psyker.